This is your guide to Shapr3D’s design user interface.
When you open a design, you’ll see five different areas:
- Top bar
- Orientation cube
- Menu
- Items
- Control bar
You can find more details about each button:
Top bar
| Icon | Name | Description |
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Designs | Brings you to the Designs screen, where all your designs are stored. If you need to delete, duplicate, create, or import designs, you can do so from this screen. |
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Education | Shows you a list of educational content: In-app introductory videos to modeling, tutorials, webinars, cheat sheet of gestures, Manual, and Shapr3D Forums. You can chat with our support agent; if you’re a Pro user, then you can also email our agent. |
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Import | Offers you a list of file formats you can import: STEP, X_T, IGES, STL, SHAPR, SLDPRT, SLDASM, 2D DWG, or 2D DXF. You can also import images from your Files or Photos app or take a photo and immediately import that into Shapr3D. For more details, refer to our articles about imports. |
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Share | Opens the Export window, where you can save your design in various formats to use with other software, machines, and printers. For more details, refer to our articles about exports. |
Orientation cube
| Icon | Name | Description |
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Units |
The place to set your desired unit, and customize specific format settings with inches and degrees. Find out more in this article. |
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Views/Appearance |
This button opens:
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Orientation Cube |
Changes the view orientation of your design. Select one side of the cube to switch views. Select Top for example, to switch to a top view. To revert to a default orientation, select the orientation cube twice or press the Shift key and 0. |
Control bar
| Icon | Name | Description |
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Settings |
Opens the Settings screen. Here, you can log in or out; manage your subscription, notifications, and data settings; and select your preferred language, pencil pressure, spline point type, etc. Not only that, but you can also find the app version, terms of use, and privacy policy.
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Snaps/Guides | Opens a popover where you can turn on or off snapping to grid and guides, and enable displays of midpoints, center of face of sketch, and snapping hint. For more details, read this article.  |
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Section View | Hides everything in front of the current grid so you can view a section of your design. This article details this view. |
Menu
| Icon | Name | Description |
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Sketch | Opens a menu with all 2D tools and constraints. |
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Add | Opens a menu where you can add construction geometry (axis or plane), images, or files to your design. |
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Transform | Opens a menu with the following tools: Move/Rotate, Scale, Translate, Rotate Around Axis, Mirror, and Align. |
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Tools | Opens a menu with powerful modeling tools you can use to create and modify bodies: Boolean commands (Union, Intersect, Subtract), Loft, Shell, etc. |
Tools
| Icon | Name | Description |
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Extrude | Creates extruded bodies from planar faces or closed sketches. You can read about the tool here. |
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Shell | Hollows out or creates bodies with a specified wall thickness. You can read about the tool here. |
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Loft | Connects the profiles of two or more faces or closed sketches on different planes. You can read about the tool here. |
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Union | Fuses two intersecting bodies. You can read about the tool here. |
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Subtract | Subtracts the common parts of one or more bodies from another (intersecting) body. You can read about the tool here. |
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Intersect | Keeps only the common parts of two or more bodies. You can read about the tool here. |
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Revolve | Creates bodies from closed sketches by revolving them around an axis. You can also set a height to create helical bodies. You can read about the tool here. |
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Sweep | Creates a body by dragging the profile of a face or closed sketch along spines. You can read about the tool here. |
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Replace Face | Replaces a face of a body with another face. You can read about the tool here. |
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Project | Translates your sketches, edges, faces, and bodies to another face, either as sketches or edges. You can read about the tool here. |
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Offset | Creates a parallel sketch line, curve, or loop of an existing sketch or edge. You can read about the tool here. |
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Color | Adds color to faces and bodies. You can read about the tool here. |
Add
| Icon | Name | Description |
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Construction Axis | Adds construction axes to your workspace to help your modeling process. You can read about this option here. |
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Construction Plane | Adds construction planes that will help you position your sketches and bodies. You can read about this option here. |
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Image | Adds a photo so you can use it as a reference for sketching. |
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File | Offers you a list of file formats you can import: STEP, X_T, IGES, STL, SHAPR, 2D DWG, 2D DXF, SLDPRT, and SLDASM. You can also import images from your Files or Photos app or take a photo and immediately import that into Shapr3D. For more details, refer to our articles about imports. |
Transform
| Icon | Name | Description |
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Move/Rotate | Moves or rotates your sketches and bodies. You can read about the tool here. |
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Scale | Scales your geometry. You can read about the tool here. |
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Translate | Moves your shapes precisely from one specific point to another. You can read about the tool here. |
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Rotate Around Axis | Rotates your shapes around an axis. You can read about the tool here. |
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Align | Aligns 3D bodies. You can read about the tool here. |
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Mirror | Mirrors your sketches and bodies. You can read about the tool here. |
Sketch
| Icon | Name | Description |
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Close | Closes the Sketch menu. |
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Line/Arc |
Creates a line or arc, depending on the type you select. This button only appears if you are using the Apple Pencil.
If you set the line type to “Automatic” and wiggle your Apple Pencil while drawing a line, the line automatically becomes an arc. |
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Line |
Creates a line. This button only appears if you are using the mouse or trackpad. |
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Arc |
Creates a three-point arc. This button only appears if you are using the mouse or trackpad. |
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Spline | Creates a spline. You can start drawing with your Apple Pencil and create spline points to guide the curves. If you have a mouse or trackpad, you can click to add spline points. For more details, read this article. |
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Rectangles |
Creates a rectangle. You can create the shape using one of three methods: “Center,” “Diagonal,” and “Three Points.” For more details, read this article. |
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Circle | Creates a circle. You can adjust the size of the circle by specifying the radius. For more details, read this article. |
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Ellipse | Creates an ellipse. You can adjust the size of the ellipse by specifying the vertical and horizontal radii. For more details, read this article. |
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Polygons |
Creates polygons: triangle, pentagon, hexagon, or octagon. You can change the number of sides and adjust the polygon’s size. For more details, read this article. |
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Offset | Creates a parallel sketch line, curve, or loop of an existing sketch or edge. You can read about the tool here. |
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Trim | Trims your sketches at intersections. For more details, read this article. |
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Delete | Deletes the selected sketches or entire bodies. |
Constraints
| Icon | Name | Description |
| Auto-Constraint | If you turn on this switch, that means your sketches will automatically be defined as much as possible. For example, if you draw a line and then connect it to an arc, the Tangent constraint is automatically applied. | |
| Show Constraints |
If you turn on this switch, you can see the badges for each applied constraint directly on your sketch.
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Parallel | Makes two or more lines parallel to each other. |
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Perpendicular | Makes two lines perpendicular. |
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Tangent | Adjusts sketches so they are tangent to each other. |
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Concentric | Adjusts multiple circles, arcs, or circular edges so they share the same center point. |
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Horizontal /Vertical | Fixes your lines so they are parallel to the axes of the sketch plane. |
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Equal | Makes your lines the same length, and your circles and arc share the same radius. |
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Symmetry | Makes your sketches symmetric to a line or linear edge. |
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Disconnect | Disconnects one or more sketch points. |
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Lock | Fixes the position of your sketch points. |
Items
| Icon | Name |
Description |
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Items | A panel that organizes your bodies, sketches, planes, axes, and images as items. You can rename, search, zoom, and delete your items. |
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Pin |
Docks the Items manager to the screen. Select |
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Folder |
Creates a new folder. |
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Bodies |
Shows that the item is a body. |
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Planes and Axes |
Shows that the item is either a plane or an axis. |
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Images |
Shows that the item is an image. |
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Visibility |
You can select this to display or hide the selected items in your design. |
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Zoom to |
You can zoom into the selected item. |
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Rename |
You can rename the associated item. |
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Delete |
You can delete the selected item. |
Other icons
| Icon | Name | Description |
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Undo | Reverts the previous interaction. If you have a keyboard connected to your iPad, you can press the Control key and Z. |
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Redo | Redoes the previous interaction. If you have a keyboard connected to your iPad, you can press the Shift and Control keys and Z. |